Unity and diversity didn't stop a Christian being murdered

On 28 October 2011, Sayeeda Warsi, co-Chair of the Conservative Party, Minister without Portfolio and the first female Muslim Minister, said this in The Telegraph:

"Earlier this year… Shahbaz Bhatti, THE ONLY CHRISTIAN IN THE PAKISTANI CABINET, WAS ASSASSINATED... When Shahbaz) was murdered, I said that the soul of Pakistan was not in these attacks. There is nothing in the vision laid out by Pakistan's founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, that creates the space for such acts of hatred. THE IDEA OF UNITY THROUGH DIVERSITY RUNS THROUGH PAKISTAN'S HISTORY AND HELPS TO DEFINE ITS SOCIETY TODAY."

Actually, Sayeeda, we both know that a great many Pakistani souls will have exulted in Mr Bhatti's murder.

Just as a great many more Muslim souls have rejoiced as Christian communities throughout Asia (and Africa) have been attacked in recent times. As for ‘Pakistan's history’, I seem to remember there not being much ‘unity through diversity’ after we left the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The diverse Hindu and Muslim 'society' we left behind fell out with each other to the tune of a massacred million or so almost immediately. Oh yes, the two communities were so unified that around seven million Muslims upped sticks and moved to Pakistan and around the same number of Indians went the other way.

And then, in 1971, East Pakistan was so content with its unified, mostly Muslim lot that it seceded from the whole and became Bangladesh. The Insight on Conflict web site tell us this:

"Casualty estimates vary greatly, with between 300,000 and 3 million conflict-related deaths, and between 200,000 and 400,000 female rape victims. Even accepting the lower figures, the war was exceptionally bloody."

Wikipedia adds:

"Estimates of those massacred throughout the war range from three hundred thousand to 3 million… After Mujib declared independence of Bangladesh, Yahyah's brutal crackdown, including a virtual massacre of the intelligentsia in the universities of Bangladesh, was comparable in method to the war crimes of the Nazis… A tidal wave of hapless refugees, their number soon reaching 10 million, sought shelter in India.

On 15 August 1975, Mujib and most of his family members were assassinated by mid-level military officers. A series of bloody coups and counter-coups in the following three months culminated in the ascent to power of General Ziaur Rahman... Zia's rule ended when he was assassinated by elements of the military in 1981."

If there's one thing I would NOT call the diverse folk caught up in the above, Sayeeda, it's united. Ms Warsi continued:

"It is a mistake to assume that you compromise your identity the more you try to understand others."

Ah right. When you're the only one left in the street who doesn't look like Sayeeda Warsi you have to try harder to understand the positivity enshrined in the ethnic cleansing process. Got it.

"The stronger your understanding of your neighbour, the stronger your own religious identity becomes."

Really? The 7/7 bombers blew us up because their 'religious identity' was weak? I think you'd have a hard time convincing most Islamic folk of that one, Sayeeda.

"We need to create a country in which people can be unashamedly proud of their faith."

That was the country we had, Sayeeda, until folk like you decided to 'create' another.

"HERE IN BRITAIN, WE HAVE A PROUD HISTORY OF PLURALISM."

Oh? I thought it was just the know-better, see-further social engineers who were 'proud' of the aggressive incursions of the alien hordes into our country in recent times.

Anyway, Sayeeda, I could say more but we both know that it wouldn't do any good. The gobby, unrepresentative and over-promoted foreigner isn't generally interested in what Joe Bloggs has to say. So, you'll forgive me if I take no 'inspiration' at all from Muslim politicians like you and Muhammad Ali Jinnah or, for that matter, decent, Christian folk like Shahbaz and Paul Bhatti, and get back to being inspired by Eric Bloodaxe, Sigurd the Dragon Slayer and various other Viking Berserkers.

We good-natured Brits could have done with a little of our ancestors' unapologetic, warrior philosophy in recent times. It might have come in handy during the last six, increasingly ‘pluralist’ decades.